So, several US states were independent countries before they joined the Union, but only one
of those was governed, in part anyway, by people indigenous to the area that it controlled.
For a century, the islands that today make up the state of Hawaii were a sovereign Kingdom.
So then, why did America take over?
How did the US annex Hawaii?
Well, the Hawaiian Islands have been inhabited by humans since at least the year 1000, but
it took until the turn of the 19th century for them to be united.
From the Big Island (or just Hawai’i), the warrior-king Kamehameha the Great conquered
his neighbours in 1795, and declared himself King of All Hawaii.
The final two islands would eventually peacefully swear allegiance to him
Then beginning in the 1820s, Americans and Europeans began to take an interest in Hawaii,
though not as Empires coming to conquer, but rather as missionaries who moved to the islands
and, fairly successfully, spread Christianity among the native Hawaiians.
Although the missionaries would soon shift their interest towards something much more
temporal.
Profit from sugar plantations.
Over the next few decades, whites remained a minority in Hawaii, but their control of
land, wealth, and political power, disproportionately began to grow.
When the first Hawaiian cabinet was formed in 1845 for example, four of the five new
advisers to the king were white Americans and a Scot.
Meanwhile, the US was expanding westwards and, with that, the Hawaiian sugar industry
took off.
It was made even better by the Treaty of Reciprocity which allowed Americans
to import Hawaiian sugar tariff-free.
The city of San Francisco in particular became a hub for sugar refining, and between the
treaty’s signing and 1890, the value of Hawaii's sugar exports went up by over 700%.
Of course, that money wasn’t going into the pockets of ordinary Hawaiians, far from
it,
though the monarchy, at least for now, was still cooperating closely with the white-dominated
sugar industry, and getting its cut of the profits.
That was until in early 1887 a group of powerful businessmen and politicians formed the Hawaiian
League,
also known more blatantly as the Annexation Club.
They gained control over a regiment made up of Hawaiian-born, white soldiers, the Honolulu
Rifles, and with it, they forced Hawaii’s King Kalakaua to sign the so-called Bayonet
Constitution, which stripped him of most of his power and gave it, unsurprisingly, to
the members of the club.
Notably Peter C. Jones, head of Hawaii’s largest sugar company, as well as the fantastically-facial-haired
Sanford B. Dole, whose family would found Dole Foods.
However, in 1891 King Kalakaua died and was succeeded by his sister, Lili’uokalani,
who, acting with popular support from Native Hawaiians, attempted to rescind the Bayonet
Constitution.
An idea that the Hawaiian League wasn’t a fan of.
This time, they weren’t going to be satisfied with making a puppet of the monarchy.
They wanted it out of the way, and they wanted to ensure the easy sale of their sugar in
perpetuity by uniting Hawaii with the United States.
On January 17th, 1893, the Honolulu Rifles marched towards Lili’uokalani’s palace
on O’ahu where they were met by her Royal Guard.
At around the same time, the US ambassador to Hawaii, John Stevens, arranged for American
Marines and Sailors from the USS Boston to land in Honolulu Harbour.
Ostensibly, the US troops were neutral, only sent to protect American interests in the
city.
In reality, their presence provided the leverage that the League and the Rifles needed to successfully
carry out their coup.
Queen Lili’oukulani surrendered on the same day that it began with barely a shot fired.
She officially abdicated in 1895, after a failed native rebellion to restore the monarchy.
With her gone, the Republic of Hawaii was proclaimed with Sanford Dole as President.
His only real goal was to secure an American takeover of the islands, but that ran into
a bit of a hiccup when President Cleveland did something rare in history; he objected,
on moral grounds, to his powerful nation eating up a smaller one.
His successor?
Not so much.
In 1898 the sugar industry got its wish; Hawaii was officially annexed, and Dole became the
new territory's first governor.
All, by the way, done over the protestations of native Hawaiians who never consented to
their islands’ annexation, or eventual statehood in 1959.
Unfortunately for them, immigration from the mainland United States, as well as from large
parts of Asia has rendered the native Hawaiians a tiny minority in their own land, and Hawaii
will likely remain American for a long time to come.
If you enjoyed this video or if you learnt something from it don’t forget to subscribe
and hit the notification bell below so you don’t miss the next one.
To see more about American states, find out how Texas broke free from Mexico in the video
to the left.
And as always, I’ve been James, and thank you for watching Look Back History.